Method and system to track merchant loyalty and incentives via a credit card

Abstract

A system and method including receiving, by a computer, an authorization request including a payment account number (PAN) and an identifier of a merchant associated with a transaction, the authorization request being an authorization only type of authorization; determining whether the PAN is associated with a loyalty program of the merchant based on a record of a mapped association between the PAN and a unique account identifier of the merchant's loyalty program; and sending, by the computer, an authorization response in reply to the authorization request, the authorization response including a first indicator indicative of whether the transaction is authorized and a second indicator indicative of whether the PAN included in the authorization request is associated with the loyalty program of the merchant.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method, the method comprising:
 receiving, by a computer, an authorization request including a payment account number (PAN) and an identifier of a merchant associated with a transaction, the authorization request being an authorization only type of authorization;   determining whether the PAN is associated with a loyalty program of the merchant based on a record of a mapped association between the PAN and a unique account identifier of the merchant's loyalty program; and   sending, by the computer, an authorization response in reply to the authorization request, the authorization response including a first indicator indicative of whether the transaction is authorized and a second indicator indicative of whether the PAN included in the authorization request is associated with the loyalty program of the merchant.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving an updated authorization request to capture the authorization request; and   sending an authorization response based on the updated authorization request.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining the transaction is authorized based on the first indicator included in the authorization response. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 applying a reward incentive to the transaction based on the PAN being determined to be associated with the merchant's loyalty program.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the applying of the reward incentive to the transaction includes, at least, adjusting an authorized amount of the authorization request. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the updated authorization request to capture the authorization request includes the adjusted authorized amount. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising receiving an indication a user approves applying the reward incentive to the transaction prior to the application of the reward incentive to the transaction. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the PAN is associated with a plurality of different reward programs of a plurality of different merchants. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of a payment network provider and a payment network servicer maintains the record of the mapped association between the PAN and a unique account identifier of the merchant's loyalty program. 
     
     
         10 . A computer-implemented method, the method comprising:
 obtaining, by a computer, a record of a mapping of a payment account number (PAN) to a unique account identifier of a merchant's loyalty program;   receiving a request to determine whether a first PAN is associated with a loyalty program of the merchant based on the record of the mapping, the first PAN and the merchant being associated with the transaction; and   sending, in response to determining that the PAN is associated with the loyalty program of the merchant based on the PAN in the record of the mapping matching the first PAN, an indication of the unique account identifier of the merchant's loyalty program mapped to the PAN.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising mapping the PAN to the unique account identifier of the merchant's loyalty program. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the mapping comprises:
 receiving an indication of the PAN;   receiving an indication of the unique account identifier of the merchant's loyalty program to associate with the PAN; and   associating the PAN with the unique account identifier of the merchant's loyalty program.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the indication of the unique account identifier of the merchant's loyalty program is at least one of a string of alpha-numeric characters, a photograph of a token of the first merchant's loyalty program, and a computer-readable indicia. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the request to determine whether the first PAN is associated with a loyalty program is received from the merchant and the indication of the unique account identifier of the merchant's loyalty program mapped to the PAN is sent to the merchant. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising sending, in response to determining the PAN is not associated with the loyalty program of the merchant based on the PAN in the record of the mapping not matching the first PAN, an indication that the PAN is not associated with the merchant's loyalty program. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the PAN is mapped to a unique account identifier of a loyalty program for a plurality of different merchants. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein at least one of a payment network provider and a payment network servicer maintains the storing of the record of the mapping.